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This week, we explore a dark and disturbing social disease caused by spamming, an ever-growing problem for young spammers in the wild: out-of-work spammers. A serious issue, out-of-work spammers just can\u2019t afford to get that second Lear jet, buy a couple of hundred million\u2019s worth of Facebook stock just so they can use it as toilet paper, or even put really expensive ketchup<\/a> on their Kraft Dinner. No, the out-of-work spammer is a serious social issue, second only to child sex slaves and the human rights atrocities occurring in Syria. Fortunately for you and me, Microsoft Sweden has it covered, and what seems like a tremendously bad joke is actually no laughing matter at all.<\/p>\nImagine my surprise this Sunday morning as I (figuratively) leafed through the pages of the Interwebs, catching up on my weekly review of all things spammy. Not much to report, really, which for me was a pleasant break from the normal glut of ludicrous news items about the state of e-mail spam. In fact, the biggest news item this week was, naturally, the increase in Father\u2019s Day spam campaigns. If you haven\u2019t already picked up some malware on your way to what you thought was a $19.99 cigar deal for dad<\/a>, but instead landed on an Internet casino, then by all means click that link, Skippy (note: the link above is safe to click. It links to a story about the cigar deal).<\/p>\n But when I landed on CircleID.com and scrolled down to the venerable Terry Zink\u2019s column, my general boredom turned to wonder, then curiosity, then a humorous grin, then a puzzling frown, and then to general confusion. This week, Terry\u2019s picked up on what at face value appears to be a much-belated April Fool\u2019s Day gag, late to the party and not that good a gag, to be sure. Terry reports<\/a> on a program running out of Microsoft Sweden known as Spammers\u2019 Aid. The article includes a brief video of a Swedish chap with the nicest English, explaining how Microsoft is putting out-of-work spammers back to work by, uhm, repurposing them, I suppose. The idea here is that they\u2019re talented at bothering the hell out of people, so why not have them bother the hell out of people for legitimate reasons?<\/p>\n The \u2018recruiting\u2019 video, the one shown in Terry\u2019s article, seems like a joke. The Swedish chap hardly seems for real, and all the while you watch it you\u2019re waiting for some dude in a bad tux to jump out and tell you that you\u2019ve been punked. Ha ha, you got me good, right? Now, I had to watch this video twice and then find other similar videos before I realized this is for real. If you doubt me, check out this recorded session<\/a>. And, on Terry\u2019s MSDN blog site, you can see the same story here<\/a>. Note that while Terry is reporting this as the real deal, his skepticism leaks out a bit, too (note the question mark \u2013 \u201ccreated and provided by Microsoft?\u201d).<\/p>\n It hardly seems real, but it appears to be, and hell, it\u2019s painful to look at. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s worse: the cheesy shtick of the guy in the recruiting video, crumpling up a piece of paper, giving the mandatory Joe Coolish \u2018how are ya?\u2019 to someone in the hallway as he follows the camera, or when he extends the chart line down to the floor; or how the poor woman delivering the session is practically apologetic when she points out that it\u2019s Friday and it\u2019s sunny, so all the spammers must be out riding bikes and tossing Frisbees to their dogs in the park. They certainly aren\u2019t in the room.<\/p>\n